Difficult start in Sweden, and Mads Østberg will not drive Rally Mexico

Mads Østberg and Ola Fløene finished in 15th Place in Rally Sweden, after a difficult weekend especially with technical issues and loss of the rear wing on their Ford Fiesta WRC on Friday. But now focus changes for Mads, from rally to childbirth. He and his wife Beate looks forward to become parents in a few weeks time, and consequently Mads will not drive in Mexico.

-We have planned this a long time ago. I will not risk being away on another continent when Beate is having our first child. We already know its a boy, and he will be named Mons. My next rally will be Tour de Corse in the beginning of april, says Mads Østberg.

Mads feels the team can be happy with getting the car finished a few days before the rally, running a test the last weekend and be competitive after only four stages on friday where he actually was placed as the best Ford-driver. But after 300 kms of stages in Sweden Mads feels its s difficult to draw any conclusions and that he still has a lot to learn about the new car. The team tried some setup changes both Saturday and Sunday, but running a rally as a test is never ideal.

-For sure we need more mileage, and will be concentrating on doing some testwork before the next rally. This is especially important as the next event is on tarmac and so far I have just driven the car a few kilometers on that surface during a test in France before christmas. We can see from the splits in Sweden that we have been quite competitive on the technical parts of the stages, but I need a bit more confidence to actually trust and use the aerodynamic possibilities the car gives me in the really fast sections. But I am positive and have definitely enjoyed driving the new and very fast WRC-car, says Mads Østberg.